Fear of Rejection (two-shot)
by themelodicwayofliving
Summary: Alya finds a solution to Marinette's problem with speaking to Adrien, write him a letter! All is going smoothly until Marinette bumps into a certain blonde in the hallway... (Rated T to be safe)


Marinette was fearful as she took the folded note from her pocket. "You can do this, girl!" Alya smiled encouragingly next to her. Marinette glanced at the note before looking up at Alya and taking a deep breath.

"Right. I can do this." Marinette put a determined look on her face as she glanced over at Adrien.

"Get him, girl!" Alya encouragingly pushes Marinette towards him. Marinette takes a deep breath before walking over..

~~~~~(flashback start)~~~~~

"Hey Girl! I found a solution to your problem with Adrien!" Alya ran over to Marinette, waving her arm while holding a piece of paper.

"I don't have a problem with Adrien." Marinette objects.

Alya stops in front of her, placing the hand without the paper on her hip. "Mmhmm," she begins to pretend to be Marinette, "Oh Adrien how- uh- ah- bleh-" Marinette's face reddens as she shoves Alya jokingly. Alya laughs before saying what's on her mind, "You know how we talk in class all the time by passing notes? Well.."

Marinette looks at Alya, waiting expectantly as the brunette had paused for a dramatic effect.

"You could write him a note! Asking him to go to the movies with you on Friday!"

~~~~~(flashback end)~~~~~

Marinette reaches the place where Nino and Adrien were talking and nervously taps his shoulder, "U-uhm Adrien?" Adrien turns around, sending a heart-melting smile.

"Hey Marinette!" Marinette's face turns a deep read as she tries to stutter out her practiced sentence and give him the paper.

"I-I uhm n-note read you wrote I f-for..? N-no! M-mean I- I mean! I for you note write.. Uhm…" Marinette holds the note in front of her face and squeaks, taking a few quiet deep breaths she pulls the note down looking at Adrien's confused face. Nino flashes her a thumbs up of encouragement. "Paper! I wrote! uhm… for you! I wrote you…a note!.. Uh.. yeah!" Marinette nods, holding the note out to him and smiling with both awkwardness and embarrassment.

"Oh! Thank you." Adrien smiles kindly and takes the letter from Marinette's hands, their fingertips brush and Marinette squeaks quietly, quickly pulling her hands away. "What is it?" Adrien begins to unfold the note causing Marinette to wave her hands in front of her face.

"O-open! Don't! Wait! Uhh…" Adrien stops unfolding the paper to look at Marinette curiously, "Lunch! paper unfold lunch… at…. Uh.." The bell for class rings and Marinette jumps, "Lunch! Open at lunch!" Marinette quickly spits out before running back to Alya who had come closer, waiting for her across the front of the school by the steps.

Alya holds up her thumbs, "Nice job, girl!" Marinette smiles with relief of having finally told him, "Now we just wait for him to respond!" The girls start to head up the stairs, but Marinette suddenly stops.

"What if he says no?" Marinette's face suddenly goes pale.

"Relax, girl! He won't. I just know it." Alya smiled and pulled Marinette to class.

It was an hour into class when Marinette realized that she really needed to use the bathroom. She raised her hand, asking to be excused,, leaving her bag at her desk as she left the room. Coincidentally, this is the same time Chloe decided to show up to school.

Chloe was out of school because she desperately 'needed a new outfit' and was 'going to die' if she didn't get a new one. Sabrina, being who she was, had informed Chloe of Marinette giving Adrien a paper earlier this morning, even if she didn't know what it said.

"Hey, it's Maritrash." Chloe gave Marinette a disgusted look.

Marinette sighed, "What do you want, Chloe?"

Chloe took a step closer to Marinette, "I wanted to remind you that Adrien is mine. He will never love you, so don't even try. Stay away from him. Whatever you had 'planned' with that little note of yours, it's going to fail. Adrien is going to laugh at whatever you have to say."

Marinette felt her heart cracking, but tried her best to look at Chloe defiantly anyway. "What do you know? Not everyone is like you, Chloe. Adrien's actually nice and caring and sweet."

Chloe scoffed, "What are you talking about? I am the nicest person in Paris. No, I'm the nicest person in the world, everybody loves me." Marinette rolled her eyes. "But of course I know how Adrien would react. We've been best friends since, well, forever! I know everything about him. What do I know? I think you should ask yourself what you know." Marinette's face fell as Chloe smirked at her before walking into the classroom as if she were superior.

Marinette stood frozen for minutes as her heart completely shattered before slowly dragging her feet to the bathroom. Chloe's words sunk in and Marinette was terrified for Adrien to read her letter now. Chloe and he were best friends since childhood, of course she would know how he would react. She never had a chance, she shouldn't have given him the letter.

Marinette took a few deep breaths before plastering a fake smile on her face and getting ready to act as if she were fine. She needed to pay attention to class and get all of her notes, she misses enough study time being Ladybug and finals were coming up soon. She walked into the classroom as if everything was normal, trying to forget what happened.

Adrien was curious about the note all morning, but he continued to wait until lunch time. When the bell rang signaling the beginning of lunch, Adrien immediately pulled the letter out of his pocket and began to open it. He didn't hear the squeak behind him. He opened it and began to read.

'Adrien,

Will you go on a movie date with my Friday?

-Marinette'

There was a little heart above the i's in both Adrien and Marinette's names. Adrien looked up in surprise just in time to see the bluenette whip past him out the classroom door.

"Marinette!" Adrien called out, quickly standing up and grabbing his bag, clutching the letter tightly in his hand. He raced out the door after her.

Marinette's heart was racing as she had seen him take out the letter. She didn't think he'd look at it so soon! She thought he wouldn't open it until he got home. As he began to read, Marinette had panicked and quickly ran out the door, startling Alix who had just been walking past her desk to exit the room.

Tears began to fall as she imagined what she thought would happen. The rejection and how he would laugh at her. She ran faster, ignoring the voice of Adrien calling out her name from behind. She ran into her parents bakery and bolted up the stairs, her parents too busy with customers to noticed that she went by.

Adrien pushed open the bakery door and called out Marinette's name as she disappeared to the back and up the stairs to the upper floor of her house in only a few seconds. He sighed softly as he stopped running and the door closed behind him. He watched the place she had last been for a few moments before looking to the ground and slowly leaving the building, going back to the school where his car would take him home for lunch. "I'll have to talk to her later." He sighs softly, looking back at the letter in his hand. He didn't like her that way, but would have loved to go see a movie with her as friends. Yet, he knew the chances of his father agreeing to such a thing was next to nothing.

Marinette was sitting on her bed, crying silently with her back against the wall and her knees to her chest. "Marinette," Tikki called softly, "You didn't even know what he was going to say!"

"But I did Tikki, why would he say anything but no? He could never like someone like me. I'm a clutz and I can't even speak properly around him, why would he want to go to the movies with me? He'd only go if I were the last woman in France." Marinette hugged her knees and put her head against them, "He's never going to talk to me again."

"You know Adrien is not like that, Marinette!" Tikki was concerned for Marinette and worried about why she suddenly wasn't listening.

"I want to be alone, Tikki." Marinette whispered softly. Tikki sighed quietly and gave Marinette's head a kiss before floating to the lower level of her room. After Tikki left, Marinette looked up and saw the picture of Adrien sitting on the shelf above her bed. She reached over and grabbed it off the shelf, gripping it tightly.

She held the picture in front of her face as she began crying harder, she pulled it against her chest and buried her face in her knees.

"The pain and fear of rejection. Such an intense emotion. Perfect for my little akuma to feed off of." Hawkmoth calls a white butterfly to his palm and turns it black with evil magic. "Now go, my akuma, go and evilize her." Hawkmoth lets out an evil laugh.

Marinette couldn't see with the tears in her eyes. She couldn't see the picture of Adrien, and she definitely couldn't see the sinister butterfly consume the image in a pool of bubbling black. A purple butterfly mask appeared around her face.

"Captivator, I am Hawkmoth. You can get revenge on those who have hurt you and receive those who you love. But in return, I ask for Ladybug and Chat Noir's miraculous! Do you accept my agreement?"

Marinette glances to the ladder leading down to where Tikki had left to, going silent for a moment before responding. "Yes, Hawkmoth."

"Good." Hawkmoth grins as Marinette's body is consumed by the evil of the akuma, leaving the Captivator in her place.

The Captivator is wearing a hot pink dress with a pleated skirt. On the front of the dress is a potion bottle with red hearts coming out of it surrounding by brick-red vines. There is a black belt around her hips with a bunch of small picture frames attached to it. All are empty except for a picture with the outline of Adrien. He was in the same pose as the picture which had taken in the akuma, but the picture was now considerable smaller. The sleeves of the dress cut off mid-forearm where burgundy gloves reach from her fingertips to the same spot. The dress reached down to Captivators mid-thigh, beneath it she wore burgundy tights. Her shoes where 5 centimeter (about 2 inch) heels, and Captivators mask was similar to ladybugs, but had black hearts instead of dots and was hot pink rather than red. Her hair remained the same.

Tikki heard Marinette say something quietly and went up to check on her and see if she was okay. What she was not expecting to see was Marinette becoming akumatized. Tikki gasped in shock before quickly flying away and out of the room, not wanting Hawkmoth to find out about Marinette being Ladybug if she was spotted. She knew that Ladybug would need to purify the akuma, but she couldn't if she were the akuma victim! Yet, Tikki knew one other way to get rid of the akuma… But there was a high chance of Chat Noir discovering the identity of his partner in the process. However, the risk was, sadly, necessary.


End file.
